Practical Strategies, Guidance, and Hope for Adoptive and Foster Parents.

02/16/2012

PARENT’S ROLE AS CARE MANAGER

Who advocates for your child?

Who is the lead provider or care manager for him or her?

Commonly, parents believe that their child’s pediatrician or another significant professional will guide their medical and mental health care. In actuality, this is often not the case due to enormous caseloads and changes in our healthcare system. As a result, parents must arrange, monitor, and coordinate their child’s mental and physical health care. If a parent does not take the lead, a child’s important needs will likely be overlooked.

As a consequence of early deprivation, children may see a few to many professionals, and typically are also involved in school or community activities. A list of potential professionals adopted and foster children may be involved with include:

When parents manage their child’s care, they must be organized and knowledgeable about their child’s ailments, medications, treatment, as well as each provider’s area of expertise. Some suggestions to help in this endeavor include:

Be Organized-- Everyone has a different style to organization, whether in a day planner, folders, or an electronic device. Choose the way you prefer, and keep all pertinent information available at home and appointments.

Understand your child’s insurance-- Know how your insurance works to ensure using the benefits to your advantage. Understand the following aspects of your policy: deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, authorizations, and maximum out of pocket expenses.

Keep a copy of important papers-- Request and maintain a copy of evaluations your child has completed. At the end of any treatment, request a copy of the treatment summary. To obtain these records, you will need to sign a “Release of Information” to the provider or facility.

Create a list of potential providers-- Maintain a list of providers who are recommended to you from trusted friends, family, and the current professionals who treat your child. This list may come in handy in the future or could be shared with another family or friends.

Do not be afraid to ask questions-- As your child’s treatment leader, you need to be informed. If there is something you do not understand, continue to ask questions until you have a better comprehension.

Pursue provider recommendations-- If the provider believes another evaluation or treatment is necessary, confirm that the referral has been sent, the suggested provider is a good fit for your child, and the new treatment is valuable.

Follow up-- One of the care manager’s jobs is to follow up with the insurance company, the provider’s office, and the providers to assure completion of agreed upon tasks.

Once parents undertake the care manager role, they feel more purposeful in their child’s care and find it to be an even more worthwhile experience. Parents, please leave a comment and share with others how you manage your child’s care!

1 Comment

This comment was sent to my email address from adoptive father, Steve. His wise comment highlights the importance of being a care manager for your child:

In my opinion one of the most important aspect of care management is watching for side effects of medications. Most people know that medicines can have different side effects for different people. What we learned (the hard way) is that when it comes to mood altering drugs, if a person is given a drug for a condition they don't actually have, it can have the opposite effect on them. For example, a drug that treats aggression, when given to a person who isn't aggressive can actually make them more aggressive.

You should always note when a medication is changed or a dosage is altered and watch for any changes, desired or undesired. If they get worse it's obvious you need to talk to the one who prescribed it. If they don't change, maybe they don't even need to be on that drug and once again, talk to the prescriber. I'm all for taking a drug that makes a positive change in your health, but I hate the idea of taking one long term with no benefit. That can't be anything but an unnecessary risk.

As a child's care manager it's really up to you to see that the follow up takes place because sometimes the Doctors don't. When they say "Let's try this", it doesn't mean let's try it for three years. It really means let's try it and if it doesn't work we'll move on to something else that might.

Know the side effects of a medication and talk to your child to see if they notice any changes of any kind. Tracking changes can be a difficult thing to do, even on yourself. It's even harder when a child may not have the understanding, awareness, or vocabulary that an adult would have.